The Quarab is a cross between the American Quarter Horse and the Arabian horse, the registry was created in 1989 when lovers of both of these horses desired a combination of the two. The registry is called the United Quarab Registry and the Painted Quarab index was added in the year 1991. This was done to include the tobiano and the overo coat patterns from the American Paint Horse. Horses must be of Arabian, American Quarter Horse, and American Paint Horse bloodline to be registered with the association. Both parents must be registered horses as well. However, horses that display such characteristics as cryptorchild or parrot mouth make the horse ineligible for registration into the association. No other bloodlines are accepted into the registration besides the American Quarter Horse, American Paint Horse, and the Arabian Horse.

The body of the Quarab resembles the stock horse with a sort of muscular forearm and gaskin as well as a slightly rounded hip, or the Arabian type with long, well-arched neck, long barrel, and level croup. This horse also has found many uses; these different uses vary from things such as roping, reining, dressage, trail riding, jumping, driving, racing, and endurance. These horses, unlike many other breeds, can be sort of "custom made" with specific traits such as style, movement, size and athletic ability.

These horses, which have been crossbred with a variety of different breeds such as the Paint horse, can be registered with the Paint horse registry. They can have from 1/8 to 7/8 of either of the two breeds with no more or no less of the Arabian or Quarter horses. These horses usually stand between fourteen and sixteen hands high. They have the physical build of any other stock horse but they can have the build of the typical Arabian Horse. The United Quarab Registry was the first registry to be developed in 1989 to promote the Quarter Horse-Arabian crossbred horse.

The Quarter, Paint, or Arab horses that are bred together to produce the Quarab must be of pure blood in order for their offspring to be considered true Quarab Horses. Today, there have been attempts to grab the attention of the people of the Netherlands so that their numbers may spread. A special registry is at work to register newly born horses; this registry is called the International Quarab Horse Association or IQHA.

Since the Quarab is the mix of the Quarter Horse and the Arabian Horse, it is no surprise that these horses are fast since both of the parent breeds are well known for their speed and ability to outrun most other breeds. As a result many of these horses have garnered consistent reputations for their performance and popularity on the race track. It is also no surprise that the Quarab is skilled at many of the same events in the show and competition rings. There speed however, served a number of different purposes; they could maneuver easily which was a big help in the art of roping.